What it's about: Although the young women employed in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, are told that their work will help the U.S. win World War II, they have no idea that they're involved in building an atomic bomb.

You might also like: Denise Kiernan's The Girls of Atomic City, a nonfiction account of the military installation at Oak Ridge and it's predominantly female workforce; TaraShea Nesbit's The Wives of Los Alamos, a novel about the spouses of Manhattan Project scientists and the close-knit community they form.

Why you might like it: This lyrical and thought-provoking biographical novel follows Farrokzhad's brief but eventful life from rebellious schoolgirl to teenage bride to iconoclastic artist-turned-activist.

Try this next: Bahiyyih Nakhjavani's The Woman Who Read Too Much, about a 19th-century Iranian woman poet and scholar.

What it's about: The pursuit of vengeance makes for strange bedfellows, as teenage siblings Billy and Tommy McBride discover when they seek assistance in tracking down their parents' killers.

Is it for you? Set in 1885 Queensland, this gritty, blood-drenched Western tells a dramatic coming-of-age story while grappling with Australia's complex legacy of colonialism and genocide.

You might also like: Peter Carey's True History of the Kelly Gang or Courtney Collins' The Untold, both suspenseful historical novels about the hardscrabble lives of impoverished young people in rural Australia.

What it's about: In 1940, biracial trumpet player Hieronymus Falk is taken by the Gestapo, leaving the remaining members of the Hot-Time Swingers jazz ensemble to wonder about his fate. Decades later, they discover the truth.

Try this next: Nicole Mones' Night in Shanghai, a dramatic novel about an African-American jazz musician who flees racial discrimination at home only to confront the looming threat of WWII.

What it's about: Enthralled by the vibrant nightlife of 1920s Chicago, flapper Vera Abramowitz soon gets a glimpse of its seamy underbelly through her relationships with two made men: Tony Liollo, one of Al Capone's henchmen, and Shep Green, a bootlegger-turned-nightclub owner.

Why you might like it: Richly detailed and atmospheric, this fast-paced tale of mobsters and gun molls stars a plucky Jewish heroine who reinvents herself during Prohibition.